"I want to lose weight, but I don't want to get too skinny!"
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acorsaut89 wrote: »scare006jack37 wrote: »African malnourishment comes to mind with the big thin scare
...2 of every 5 children go hungryhttps://wfp.org/stories/10-things-everyone-should-know-about-hunger-ethiopia
Would you want to be this thin? Being skinny in a developed nation is a joke.
So not sure which "developed" nation you live in, but I live in Canada. And in Canada, 1 in 3 children live below the poverty line and go hungry every day. I get that the countries are different and our poverty lines are different but there are still issues in developed nations, too. The poverty line in Canada, for reference, is a household income after taxes of <$24,000 last time I checked. As a single person, I make just over twice that and I still have debt and have things I can't afford - mainly due to a separation leaving me with debt - but still, how could you afford to feed yourself, potentially a partner and one ore more children on less than $500/week and put a roof over your head in a developed nation?
Being skinny here isn't a joke, it's a relative term. There are people suffering with EDs every single day - people who purposely starve themselves to just lose those last 5 lbs. I get third world and developing nations don't have access to food regularly, all the time and they may not know where their next meal is coming from - I get it. What I also get is that your picture has no place in this thread for this context. Everywhere has issues and problems, everywhere. Rich people, poor people, black people, white people. We all have issues and at the end of the day, we're all still just people. Are you in Africa bringing aid and relief to these people? Are you giving up your life and your food to go to the politically and economically unstable countries and help people? If so, awesome - that's a very admirable thing to do.
If not, don't talk about it.
Also - your link is specifically about Ethiopia. Not about "African" malnutrition. There are many countries in Africa who do not face this malnutrition epidemic, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, for example do not have food epidemics like this. Further the article states 2 in 5 children have stunting issues, which is caused by malnutrition. The real number of children who "go hungry" could be higher or could be lower but if you're going to reference articles, reference them appropriately please.
I am Canadian and born in the West Indies (and of African decent) and I just want to kiss your face! Lol0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »scare006jack37 wrote: »African malnourishment comes to mind with the big thin scare
...2 of every 5 children go hungryhttps://wfp.org/stories/10-things-everyone-should-know-about-hunger-ethiopia
Would you want to be this thin? Being skinny in a developed nation is a joke.
So not sure which "developed" nation you live in, but I live in Canada. And in Canada, 1 in 3 children live below the poverty line and go hungry every day. I get that the countries are different and our poverty lines are different but there are still issues in developed nations, too. The poverty line in Canada, for reference, is a household income after taxes of <$24,000 last time I checked. As a single person, I make just over twice that and I still have debt and have things I can't afford - mainly due to a separation leaving me with debt - but still, how could you afford to feed yourself, potentially a partner and one ore more children on less than $500/week and put a roof over your head in a developed nation?
Being skinny here isn't a joke, it's a relative term. There are people suffering with EDs every single day - people who purposely starve themselves to just lose those last 5 lbs. I get third world and developing nations don't have access to food regularly, all the time and they may not know where their next meal is coming from - I get it. What I also get is that your picture has no place in this thread for this context. Everywhere has issues and problems, everywhere. Rich people, poor people, black people, white people. We all have issues and at the end of the day, we're all still just people. Are you in Africa bringing aid and relief to these people? Are you giving up your life and your food to go to the politically and economically unstable countries and help people? If so, awesome - that's a very admirable thing to do.
If not, don't talk about it.
Also - your link is specifically about Ethiopia. Not about "African" malnutrition. There are many countries in Africa who do not face this malnutrition epidemic, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, for example do not have food epidemics like this. Further the article states 2 in 5 children have stunting issues, which is caused by malnutrition. The real number of children who "go hungry" could be higher or could be lower but if you're going to reference articles, reference them appropriately please.
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DeirdreWoodwardSanders wrote: »I'm 5'4" and currently 165#. My goal was 150#. Because of this thread, I'm thinking of heading for 125#.
I wonder if I can do it! The lowest I've been in my adult life is 142, and that was when I was training for a mini-triathlon.
I think the only time I weighed 125 was in seventh grade.
Go for it!! I'm going for my 8th grade weight currently.0 -
I'm 5'8 and after losing 42lbs I now weigh 171 and I still don't want to go that much lower even though a BMI of 25 would have me at 165lbs. Currently at a size 6-8, I'm definitely in the 'I don't want to get too "skinny" camp.'
As another poster pointed out it's a T&A thing and the bits in between are now tight and looking "toned" so my 25.5% BF can drop another 1 to 1.5% but I am liking the strong but soft look.0 -
My experience is the exact opposite tbh, as someone who came from 294 lbs and has been stuck between 140 and 170 for 2 or 3 years now. As soon as I cut out soda and started taking walks (that's literally all I did - I didn't even count calories), the first hundred pounds melted right off - it's the last stretch that is starting to actually require effort.
This sounds like the mentality of someone who doesn't/didn't have too much to lose. I think if you're 20lbs overweight it's easy to set a low goal and be pretty confident you'll hit it, most likely without making too many drastic changes to your lifestyle. Maybe you start going to the gym if you're not already. You shave off a couple hundred calories. Try out weight lifting. Now imagine you have 150lbs+ to lose. Imagine the modifications you'll need to make to your lifestyle to do that. You're someone who's never exercised or hasn't in years. You've never thought about what you've ate or restricted yourself in the past. There's a good chance your hobbies are extremely sedentary and possibly even specifically revolve around eating/drinking.Iwishyouwell wrote: »Overweight and obese people setting goals that are still pretty high
My experience is the exact opposite tbh, as someone who came from 294 lbs and has been stuck between 140 and 170 for 2 or 3 years now. As soon as I cut out soda and started taking walks (that's literally all I did - I didn't even count calories), the first hundred pounds melted right off - it's the last stretch that is starting to actually require effort.
This sounds like the mentality of someone who doesn't/didn't have too much to lose. I think if you're 20lbs overweight it's easy to set a low goal and be pretty confident you'll hit it, most likely without making too many drastic changes to your lifestyle. Maybe you start going to the gym if you're not already. You shave off a couple hundred calories. Try out weight lifting. Now imagine you have 150lbs+ to lose. Imagine the modifications you'll need to make to your lifestyle to do that. You're someone who's never exercised or hasn't in years. You've never thought about what you've ate or restricted yourself in the past. There's a good chance your hobbies are extremely sedentary and possibly even specifically revolve around eating/drinking.Iwishyouwell wrote: »Overweight and obese people setting goals that are still pretty high
See, the thing about that is when you're obese and you stay that way, you probably already have a ton of bad habits so it's easy to change one or two at a time and keep everything else relatively the same. You remain in relative comfort and go at your own pace, while still losing consistently. Now, someone who has less to lose might only have one or two bad habits, sure, but those bad habits probably make them happy and they can't be like "oh, well, I still have this, so I don't feel deprived." Not to mention you lose faster if you have more to lose - people with not as much to lose also stand to be discouraged by losing 0.5 lbs this week where someone with a lot to lose might have lost 2 or even 3.
I lost only 35'ish pounds and the only things I really changed compared to the other times that I failed to lose weight was to walk to and from work which equates to 4 miles a day (5 miles now after moving), cutting out diet soda other than as a once in a while mixer with alcohol and taking vitamin d. Not sure if something else is at work here because it was ridiculously easy to get into the underweight bmi range based on this and overall eating less (which had failed to produce results before), but assuming it was not, this works for the last few pounds too. I also upped my calories and eat pretty normally now and don't really limit my food at all.
Yup, happened with me too - I lost the first 20 lbs of my medication weight (from 198 to 178) years ago just by moving to a walkable city, and walking and taking transit instead of driving. That's all I did.
Has anyone tried to estimate the amount of NEAT calories that we now do not expend, compared to those burned by people even a few decades ago? I'd be interested to see the difference in cals burned between people replicating a typical 1954-in-North America day compared to what's common now. Walking most places, washing dishes by hand, etc etc, it adds up.
(Or even compared to the 80s. Not looking at stats but it feels like that's when there was a sharp upturn in people seeming to struggle with overweight.)0 -
It might be a softener when discussing your weight loss efforts with other people.
Maybe to communicate that you aren't or won't become obsessed with it, or that you won't judge the person/people you talk to about it, if they are overweight. Depending on where you live, it could be a way of saying that you are not being too self-involved or boasting about your achievements, because it's rude to do this. You may feel the need to pass of the work you have done as if it's nothing much.
It's difficult to have a rational conversation with people about this, isn't it?
My husband has never been overweight, but lost about 3 kilos when he took up running a few years ago. Now his Mum and sister go on at him all the time for having gone 'too far' and flat out telling him at the dinner table he looks horrible and unhealthy. It also doesn't help that he doesn't eat a lot of the rich food they cook because he has IBS. But he's on the lower end of a healthy BMI - not on the border and not underweight, so I don't know why they think he's unhealthy. He's a chubber compared to some people in his running club. He runs marathons (and quite quickly too) - he wouldn't be able to do that on a diet of lettuce, but try telling his family that. Too skinny.0 -
20yearsyounger wrote: »At 145, I consider myself too skinny and never want to go there again. That's still a 20 in the BMI range
I felt the same way. I wanted to see what it looked like. I did. I got a lot of "looks". I was still a 20 BMI (145/ 5'11). I was all boob, nothing else. Size 4 pants, 32DDD bra. Looked totally strange. I'll be happy maintaining this time at 155-157.
Could I get lower - sure. But would I be happy with what I looked like. No. And that's why we all do this right?
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I currently have a goal set that is still overweight for me, but that's just my first goal. I'm middle-aged and I don't care if I start to look old or whatever. Age happens. This is the first time in my life that I've exercised and I'd like to see what my body could come to look like thanks to that. I'll set a second goal once I reach my first, and it will likely be much lower. It will probably still put me in the higher range for my height, but I have a large frame.0
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I dunno. You're allowed to stop losing weight whenever you want, ffs0
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I'm wearing a size US10 right now (today!) at 5'3.5" and 171lbs. We're not all the same body type and shape.Sorry you're right my lean body mass was even higher, at that time I was very active, doing an insane amount of HITT training and weight training. I've since been ill for several years and my scale is showing the lower 110-120 LBM which I know may not be totally accurate. My target weight at 170lbs I know is still high. But I figured until I got closer to my ultimate weight and even more importantly, my ultimate fitness level, there was little point putting an arbitrary goal of 160 or 150lbs.
At 170lbs I fit into all my typical clothes (size 10-12) which even at 140lbs I wear that same size due to my body frame. It gets me close to the target, then I can just work on the fine details of my body recomp.
(edited for grammar)
Do you have a picture of yourself at 140lbs, 19% body fat and a size 10-12? because honestly this does not sound possible to me, unless this was a size 10-12 from before there was a massive amount of vanity sizing. I have a very wide frame and was a size 12-14 at 140lbs, but could get down to a size 2 by losing 35 pounds. I'm still wide now, but wide and flat, so I'm a size 2 instead of a size 0. I doubt my body fat percentage was anywhere near 19% at those stats.
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When I was 22yo, I weighed 141lbs and 5'3.5", slightly overweight according to BMI. I was running 3-4x a week, hitting the gym hard 3x a week, and was a serious Brickhouse! Guys would yell out the window to me when I would run outside in a sports bra and lycra shorts.
I was wearing a US8. My trainer at the gym said they'd probably have to shave my hip bones to get me into a size US6. Yep, still overweight. And 22yo.
So... my goal weight is still in the low end of "overweight" BMI. How can I expect to be lighter or in better shape now than when I was in my prime at 22?
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I'm wearing a size US10 right now (today!) at 5'3.5" and 171lbs. We're not all the same body type and shape.Sorry you're right my lean body mass was even higher, at that time I was very active, doing an insane amount of HITT training and weight training. I've since been ill for several years and my scale is showing the lower 110-120 LBM which I know may not be totally accurate. My target weight at 170lbs I know is still high. But I figured until I got closer to my ultimate weight and even more importantly, my ultimate fitness level, there was little point putting an arbitrary goal of 160 or 150lbs.
At 170lbs I fit into all my typical clothes (size 10-12) which even at 140lbs I wear that same size due to my body frame. It gets me close to the target, then I can just work on the fine details of my body recomp.
(edited for grammar)
Do you have a picture of yourself at 140lbs, 19% body fat and a size 10-12? because honestly this does not sound possible to me, unless this was a size 10-12 from before there was a massive amount of vanity sizing. I have a very wide frame and was a size 12-14 at 140lbs, but could get down to a size 2 by losing 35 pounds. I'm still wide now, but wide and flat, so I'm a size 2 instead of a size 0. I doubt my body fat percentage was anywhere near 19% at those stats.
but what is your bodyfat% - that's the part that makes a size 10-12 hard to imagine.
Im 5'11/170 pounds, 22/23% bf and I wear a size 9. so someone who weighs 30 pounds less than me, has a sizeably smaller bf% most likely wont be 2 sizes bigger than me. Im just having a hard time picturing it as well.
it's all about that fat.
percentage.
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I see your point. My body fat percentage is, uh, lots.
I'm wearing a size US10 right now (today!) at 5'3.5" and 171lbs. We're not all the same body type and shape.Sorry you're right my lean body mass was even higher, at that time I was very active, doing an insane amount of HITT training and weight training. I've since been ill for several years and my scale is showing the lower 110-120 LBM which I know may not be totally accurate. My target weight at 170lbs I know is still high. But I figured until I got closer to my ultimate weight and even more importantly, my ultimate fitness level, there was little point putting an arbitrary goal of 160 or 150lbs.
At 170lbs I fit into all my typical clothes (size 10-12) which even at 140lbs I wear that same size due to my body frame. It gets me close to the target, then I can just work on the fine details of my body recomp.
(edited for grammar)
Do you have a picture of yourself at 140lbs, 19% body fat and a size 10-12? because honestly this does not sound possible to me, unless this was a size 10-12 from before there was a massive amount of vanity sizing. I have a very wide frame and was a size 12-14 at 140lbs, but could get down to a size 2 by losing 35 pounds. I'm still wide now, but wide and flat, so I'm a size 2 instead of a size 0. I doubt my body fat percentage was anywhere near 19% at those stats.
but what is your bodyfat% - that's the part that makes a size 10-12 hard to imagine.
Im 5'11/170 pounds, 22/23% bf and I wear a size 9. so someone who weighs 30 pounds less than me, has a sizeably smaller bf% most likely wont be 2 sizes bigger than me. Im just having a hard time picturing it as well.
it's all about that fat.
percentage.
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I do dread the masses of skin I will most likely have, having maintained way too many extra pounds for 11 years (and based on what my skin did after pregnancy...yikes). And I also dread that I will become one huge mass of facial wrinkles and turkey neck. People tell me I look young, but I think that may just be because my fluff is keeping all the caverns pushed out.
BUT do I dread being "skinny" and hope to keep my "curves," as far as overall body shape goes? NO. When I was slender, I LOVED being small all over. I had small-ish boobs (34B/C), a flat tummy, straight little hips, I was able to wear my son's jeans after he was 13 or so...it was great. Had no problems at all with that!
So despite the Sharpei blanket that will most likely overlie it, I don't worry at all about my body size/shape becoming "too skinny." At all. Looking forward to it! I loved being small, feeling light, nothing getting in the way of anything, being able to drop any piece of clothing I wanted over any body part and having zero binding, tightness, discomfort, bulges.
I'm good with it.0 -
I think it is just an aesthetic preference. The word "skinny" means different things to different people. For example, I believe it is attractive to be a healthy weight, and view "athletic", and "lean" as positive descriptions. Love handles and a fat tummy are not attractive to me!
However, "skinny" to me means somebody who is probably actually underweight, has no curve in their legs, skinny arms, no muscle mass that I can see, etc. This is also very unattractive to me...if you can ever count my ribs from across the room please offer me something to eat.
So while most overweight people realize they are too heavy and want to lose weight, most don't want to become a runway model who looks emaciated. That's all they are saying.0 -
MoiAussi93 wrote: »So while most overweight people realize they are too heavy and want to lose weight, most don't want to become a runway model who looks emaciated. That's all they are saying.
Good thing the vast, overwhelming majority of once heavy people will never even taste "runway model emaciated".
Which does make it odd that so many fat people run around claiming to be terrified of getting "too skinny".0 -
My realistic goal is actually still in the "overweight" range for my size, and my ultimate goal is at the very top of the healthy range. For me, it's just because I don't know what it'll be like when I get there. I've been overweight-to-obese for my entire adult life; my goal weight is the one I was at when I was 18... and I only stayed there for a scant year before I became pregnant, had my son, and pretty much stayed fat ever after.
I'm 5'8" and the last time I was "normal" weight I was a teenager who had only been weight-restored (as a former anorectic) for six months. I barely experienced that before I was pregnant and then overweight. From age 17 to 18 I also grew more than six inches, because that was when I started restoring my weight and thus fueling my body for its adolescent growth. I literally have no idea what my body is like when it's adult, fully grown, and at a healthy weight. Thus, I set my expectations very, very modestly, so that I can adjust for whatever the reality of my body ends up being.
My first goal, the one I know I can achieve and maintain is 165-170lbs. At this weight as an adult (the first three years or so after I had my son), I felt fluffier than I wanted to be, but I was healthy and strong and could wear cute straight-size clothing with no problems. My ultimate goal, the one I will strive for if I find that I can still keep losing comfortably after hitting the first one, is 150lbs. That was where I leveled off at age 18, and at the time I felt terribly fat because I was dealing with a lot of other body stuff... but I think experiencing it as a mentally sound adult will be different.0 -
CupcakeCrusoe wrote: »I personally set my goal at the high range of normal bmi because I have never, ever, been normal bmi in my life. Except as you know, an infant and small child.
I will re-evaluate when I get to normal bmi. I think a lot of people do.
Uhuh. If, like me, you've never seen a healthy BMI in adulthood ... well ...0 -
I think it depends on the person. For me, what I mean by too skinny is at the bottom end of the BMI goal for my height (5'1). That's around 100-105 pounds. In my mind, FOR ME, that's much too small. I've been 128 pounds before (my goal is to be around 125-128) and it was a good fit for my body type. I was happy there.0
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